1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to the field of explosive ordinance disposal (EOD) and more particularly to EOD using robotic devices with various disposal attachments thereon.
2. Description of the Related Art
There are many situations in which police, military personnel or others require the ability to dispose of or render safe an explosive device, e.g., landmines, improvised explosive devices (IEDs), CBRN (chemical/biological/radiological/nuclear) devices, etc. while minimizing risk to themselves and others. Remotely operated robots have been developed to investigate potential explosive devices and in some cases are used to disable the devices or to detonate in a controlled manner. Examples of such robots include the PackBot series available from iRobot and the Talon series available from Foster Miller.
The iRobot PackBot and the Foster Miller Talon may be used to disrupt IEDs, military ordnance, land mines, etc. Both the PackBot and the Talon utilize an extendible arm and may include a gripper for picking up and placing different sized objects, including disruptors. Disruptors are devices that contain, e.g., gunpowder, water or other disruptive material. The disruptors may be in the shape of a plastic water bottle, briefcase or the like. The disruptors are placed close to, for example, an IED, in order to detonate or disable the IED. There are numerous accessories available for the PackBot in order to facilitate disruption including, for example, a flipper tool bar kit and a main ordnance lift kit which attach to the PackBot and uses flippers to move implements up and down.
The PackBot and Talon robots may also work with disruptor guns which fire projectiles, e.g., water, clay, rubber bullets, and the like at IEDs in order to disrupt the trigger mechanism and or facilitate controlled detonation. Additional accessories have been developed by other companies, e.g., Proparms Ltd. and Ideal Products, to work with the PackBot, Talon and other robots. Ideal Products offers a trade named PAN Disruptor™ wherein PAN stands for Percussion Actuated Non-electric. The PAN Disruptor™ is a tool that is connected to the arm of a robot to safely dismember and disarm explosive packages with unknown content by firing water, clay or lead shot to take apart packages with unknown content.